


A New Study

by Schach



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-09
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-20 16:37:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/587491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schach/pseuds/Schach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well here we go. A fill for the Secret Mutant Exchange 2012, for Analise010. I've never done this before, so I hope it's okay. I have never watched community so it may be a bit different from the request, but I tried to make up for it by adding in a few other things you'd asked for as well. That said, enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Study

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



Charles was pleased to be the first at their table, but then again that was to be expected. As the self-named head of their little study group, even though nobody was quite sure what it was they were studying, Charles took it on himself to get to their designated spot ahead of time and order what everyone had texted him they wanted so they could start on time. Even if they never actually did, what with Sean changing his mind, and Raven coming in still undecided, and Moira usually spilling one drink before she’d settled down with another.  It was also Charles’ time to breathe deep before sitting down and wondering where everything had gone so wrong for the next two hours.

This morning, in particular, was already promising to be uncomfortable and miserable.  Miserable because he’d forgotten to close the window before falling asleep, waking up sans socks and covers, obviously thrown off in a fit of sleeping passion, sporting a rather tender, red nose and polite, refined sniffles.

Then it would be uncomfortable in the sense that Moira had called the night before to ask him out on a date after group and Charles instead of simply turning her down, said he was dating Erik Lehnsherr, yes, _that_ Erik Lehnsherr, the tall brooding man who came to every meeting and said not a single word, but rather glared in turns at the people around him and whatever book he’d happened to bring that week, and no he really wasn’t like that _all_ the time, just around people who weren’t Charles.

The problem with that admission was that he was actually lying. Not the part where he wasn’t always grumpy, but the dating part. Obviously, given the chance, he would absolutely date Erik. They’d been friends for two semesters now; studying together often enough that Charles had begun to recognize his footsteps approaching from behind or catch himself wishing he could wear the other man’s atrociously good-looking turtlenecks just so that he might smell the other’s heavenly scent all day. In other words, it was hopeless and to avoid the imminent hour where he proclaimed his love aloud while throwing himself across the table, he’d immediately started a study group, hoping he’d be less likely to do so with others around to hold him accountable, even if they failed at that.

The group wasn’t too big, consisting of only seven people. Raven, his neighbor across the dorm hall, had signed on first, dragging along her new girlfriend, Angel. Angel had brought along her brother Darwin, who invited his roommate Sean. He wasn’t sure how Moira had gotten involved, but he had a suspicion that she, and her date offer, where a result of Raven’s horrible match-making skills. He’d knocked on her door as he’d exited his room, wanting to help him figure out what to do, or essentially tell him what to do, but the moment she answered the door in a sheet with Angel’s head peeking around the corner behind her, Charles had turned heel and took off down the hall. He could wait.

And wait. And call Raven twice with no answer. And send her a text exclaiming, _told moira I was dating ERIK HELP NOW._ Then, finally, cry a little inside when she didn’t arrive first.

“Hey Charles,” Darwin called, depositing a mess of red hair wrapped in a bundle of scarf and coat and rather old, beat up blanket in a chair across from him, “Looking a little under the weather today. Fall not agreeing with you?”

“I believe it would be had I been properly afraid of it, and not invited it in my house,” he replied, looking curiously at the unmoving Sean while Darwin deposited their joint books on the table and had a seat himself.

“He was up all night playing video games with some Alex kid from the fourth floor. But he told me to wake him up for study group no matter what,” Darwin shrugged, taking the offered coffee from Charles, ignoring Sean’s muffled sigh that sounded a bit like he was eating his scarf.

“I hope you’re ready for that Chem exam tomorrow, Sean,” Angel’s voice said from behind him, not even pausing for air before leaning over, placing a hand on either of his shoulders and gushing into his ear, “I heard you’re dating Erik now! It’s about time you got your feelings out there isn’t it?”

“God no,” he choked out, hoping he wasn’t turning red, and covering his eyes so that he couldn’t see Darwin’s mouth fall open, and Sean’s bleary eyes appear over his moth eaten scarf, “I am not. I, no. How did you, who- Raven!”

“What?” she said irritably, sliding into the seat next to his right, Angel taking the seat next to her and moving it close enough to Raven that she might as well have sat on her lap and saved the chair for someone who might give it proper use.

“Why did you tell Angel that Erik and I- that,” he couldn’t quite bring himself to say it out loud, and glaring at the two boys who hadn’t moved since Angels’ words before turning back to the two woman beside him, he snapped,” And we aren’t anyway. That was a private text!”

“Charles,” Raven said sternly, not even bothering to look at him, but rather at Angel, placing her hand on the other’s thigh seductively or lovingly, Charles wasn’t sure Raven knew the difference, and staring deeply into her eyes.

She didn’t continue, and Charles had the feeling he’d been forgotten entirely, not only just by Raven and what she’d meant to say, but by the boys, mostly Sean, who had transferred their awestruck looks from him to the couple that refused to stop touching and clasping and whatever else it was they did to display their feminine love in public.

“Yes, Raven?” Charles prompted, pulling an annoyed face when she finally turned around to face him, sure he didn’t accomplish anything to threatening with his reindeer nose.

“Maybe next time you won’t keep interrupting me during my extra curriculars with my girlfriend,” she smiled sweetly, patting his knee with her free hand, “Then I won’t feel obligated to share the stupid things you do.”

Deciding to ignore everything she’d just said, Charles shook his head fiercely, trying to fully empty it, pinching his nose and declaring firmly to the table, “You can’t tell, Erik, about any of this.”

Of course, that was the moment, Erik chose to make his entrance, appearing quite suddenly at Charles’ elbow, pulling out his chair and sitting while asking quietly, dangerously, “Tell me about what?”

Directly across from him, and next to Sean, Moira herself slid into a chair, sharing an acknowledging look with Erik that sent a bolt of terror straight down his spine. He probably shouldn’t have given her so much information about their fake dating life.

Charles’ heart was too busy trying to spontaneously combust to answer, and he could only manage a half cough, half gasp, mentally flailing about until Sean, sleepy, bleary eyed, blessed Sean, jumped in with a rushed, “That he ordered the wrong coffee for you. He didn’t want us to tell you.”

Erik merely raised an eyebrow, digging through his bag and placing a water bottle on the table in front of him, saying, “Charles knows I don’t drink coffee.”

“All righty then,” Charles exclaimed too loudly, clapping his hands, dictating, “Sean and Angel, I’ll help you with your Chem. Raven and Moira, English paper, right? You’ve got that. Darwin, do you have anything to study? Do you need help?”

Darwin shook his head pulling a massive book closer and Charles went to work attempting to keep his full attention on helping, and not the unmoving, presumably reading mass in his peripheral vision. He succeeded horribly.

Every time he sneezed, Erik would hand him a tissue with no comment and no movement other than that of his hand and his eyes across his page, Moira would smile at Charles in an encouraging sort of way, which was beyond weird. She was supposed to be sad that he’d turned her down, not seemingly happy that Erik had supposedly claimed him already. Everyone else at the table, sans Raven and Angel who really only had eyes for each other, was looking back and forth between him and Erik when they thought Charles wasn’t watching. He could handle all of that. Easily.

What he couldn’t handle, couldn’t even fathom really, was when Erik pulled his chair closer, with no warning, so close that they might as well be mimicking the couple next to them.

“Uhm, Erik, what’re you doing?” Charles squeaked, trying to scoot his chair away to the other side, but Raven stuck her foot out and effectively ruined that plan.

“Nothing, Charles, just checking to see if you’re okay,” Erik said syrupy sweet, concern evident on his face but not in his eyes as he pressed a cool hand to Charles’ flushing forehead. He appeared to be displeased with the results because he clucked rather disapprovingly, pulling Charles off of his chair and directly into his lap, cradling his head to his chest and Charles was busy trying to remember the exact moment he had died when Erik sighed dramatically into his hair, “My poor darling Xavier.”

“I knew it,” Sean murmured happily, dropping his head back into his scarf and stretching out over his book, content with the assumption that his lesson must be over.

 Darwin was content to shake his head at both Erik and Sean, returning to his book, while Moira continued to stare at Charles in the most confusing way, it became even more so when he tried to escape from Erik’s clutches only to be held tighter, gasping out, “What is going on?!”

“This is what couples do, right?” Erik asked mildly, a blank neutral expression on his face, damn him. Charles’ face, in the meantime, was about as red as it could be with every single blood vessel in his body trying to enter it.

“What?” was all he managed to get out before his mouth clamped shut, determined that it would never open again, never allowing him another chance to stick his big, fat foot in it.

“Aren’t we dating, Charles?” he asked innocently, smiling down at Charles who couldn’t quite meet anyone’s eyes, searching desperately for an escape route, Erik prompting,  “Charles?”

“No,” Charles whispered to the ground, and Erik promptly deposited him back into his seat, upon which Charles hid miserably behind his hands, waiting for anyone else to say something first.

“Imagine my surprise when Moira congratulated me on the way in about catching your affections first,” Erik stated as if mentioning something mundane like the color of his socks, or that he was getting a haircut later.

“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings, Moira,” he explained to his hands, and Moira, unable to acknowledge Erik yet, whispering, “You’re such a sweetheart and I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I figured as much when Erik gave me a look that said drop dead after I’d stopped him this morning,” Moira smiled, leaning across the table to pry his hands from his face to see his eyes, “I forgive you. You did it out of kindness for me.”

And that was it, it was over, it was finished, they would put it in a box and never, ever, ever mention it again. Except Raven finally looked up from Angel and pointed out not too subtly, “He didn’t have to say he was dating _Erik_ though come on guys. Catch on here please. Let’s get it over with and out in the open. Both of them.”

He could have kicked her under the table, as it was he was sure her legs were somehow entangled with Angel’s down there so he gracefully left out, “Yes, well I had to think on the spot didn’t I?”

“But Erik though? Really? You could have said, like, that hot chick you’re always hanging out with or something, instead of just defaulting to the resident misanthrope, no offense Erik,” Sean lifted his head for half a second to rush out before dropping back down.

“You do balance each other out pretty nicely,” Darwin shrugged, figuring he might as well weigh in on the subject now that it was out in the open, “You know if he was the yin and you were the yang.”

Charles couldn’t believe his ears. This was mutiny. All of them had betrayed him, him their faithful study group leader.  He should leave and never come back. Even if they enticed him with promises of tea and those little cinnamon doughnuts he was so fond of.

“Good lord. Look at the time,” he exclaimed, looking at his watch, jumping out of his chair and grabbing his things, “I’ve got to go, got to, uhm, I need to see a teacher about an assignment. It’s been a pleasure.”

He made it all the way outside and down a few squares of sidewalk before he heard those familiar footsteps rushing along behind him.

“Wait, Charles, wait,” Erik called out, halting his prey and laying a hand on his shoulder as they turned to face one another.

“Erik, I’m really late, I have to go,” he was saying apologetically at the same time Erik was forcing out, “Would you like to go out on a date with me?”

He meant to answer, he really did, but a strangled sound was all he could manage, and Erik grinned in relief saying calmly, “Good. I’ll pick you up tomorrow night at 7.”

Another quieter strangled noise was issued, and then Erik was ushering him back towards the coffee shop, “Come back in here. You can’t them fail their test. If they say anything else on the subject, I’ll stare them down until they find something else to do.”

 Charles nodded; he was more than ready to spend the next hour and a half wondering where everything had gone so right.


End file.
